Sitting up on his bed, Nicholas sat confused as he stared at his surroundings. He was sure that he hadn't drunk or taken anything too excessive last night, however the room he was looking at didn't belong to him and even worse, it looked like it belonged to some form of nobility.
The gold plated columns, the absurdly soft bed and the sheets that he had only seen in the presidential suite of a hotel he had once worked at. Nothing here, from the clothes to the environment was one that he knew but somehow there was a compelling feeling to just sit still.
He had no idea what was going on but he also understood that if he had encroached in some rich person's house then he might as well enjoy the luxury before he is eventually thrown into prison.
"Is this really how the rich even live?" Nicholas questioned himself as he looked around
There was a common saying that the world's wealth was in the hands of the top 1% but from what he was seeing, this looked like it was the top 1% of that 1%. No matter how he racked his memories, he couldn't come up with even the slightest idea as to how and why he was here.
"Is this a kidnapping?" Nicholas whispered quietly to himself.
The thought alone immediately put him on alert, the feat of kidnapping a person without their knowledge wasn't an easy one nor was it something he even thought was possible. He had seen and been in nearly every kind of situation that one could be in and he had never once heard anything like this. Kidnapping could be ruled out as to why he was here but it didn't exactly mean that he was in a safe situation
Quickly getting up from the bed, he rushed to the windows to try and gain some grasp over his situation. Squatting enough to see through the windows but not enough to be seen, a move he had done multiple times in the past. However what he saw couldn't be any stranger than what should be.
As far as his eyes could see, everything was covered in snow,directly below the window was a river which was iced over and beyond the river was what he could recognize as a city.
"Snow?.... In Nigeria, since when?" he said as he stood up.
Nothing made sense now, the last thing he remembered, he was still in the barracks but he wasn't on duty so he was working on his novel. This meant that if anyone was to be able to kidnap him, they would have been met with immense resistance and even so, he was just a Captain, what could he know that would make him a significant target to any enemy of the state.
Even worse, never in his 38 years of existence had he ever seen a single snow flake in Nigeria which made his current situation even more impossible. This was either an artificially set up environment or that he was somehow in another country. Both options were impossible. Option A would involve money greater than a nation's annual budget and option b was just straight up impossible, he should know, he had led multiple missions that did the exact same thing.
Looking a bit more carefully he could see some people who seemed to be standing guard at the gates of the building. In their hands were some rifles but old version, he couldn't specify a name for them but it was very clear that they weren't modern rifles
As he watched, he saw a carriage drawn by horses pass through the gates. He couldn't believe his eyes as what he was seeing didn't seem to make sense at all. As though it finally dawned on him, he finally turned his attention to the room he was in.
He had once noted the gold and luxurious interior but hadn't focused on it properly but now things were pointing to a more outrageous theory that only someone who was an avid fan of fantasy stories and even an author of many like him could imagine.
"Is this..?" He asked himself aloud as a wide smile began to appear on his face
It explained how he got here and why the skyline looked nothing like he was used to. Why people were leaving the building in carriages while the guards were carrying weapons that looked like muskets? This wasn't a kidnapping as he had thought it was, no it was a much more dangerous and exciting situation.
He had somehow time travelled or transmigrated or something of that nature, he didn't know which one in particular but he knew this was no longer a normal situation. The only plausible explanation as to why he was in such a situation was that he had either time travelled which seems very likely or he had transmigrated or reincarnated in some way or the other.
"If so then that means I'm some important guy then" Nicholas thought as he continued to look around the room before suddenly freezing in place as he stared at a mirror in the room.
The person he was seeing in the mirror wasn't himself, he couldn't say he was that dark in complexion but he was still an Afro-russian and he had spent most of his lifetime in Nigeria rather than Russia so he had a dark enough complexion.
However the person in the mirror was as white as they got, from complexion to hair color. He looked like someone who had never seen the light of the sun before in his life, he couldn't exactly get a good height for his new body but as though hit by a truck, a sudden sense of weakness overcame him.
He couldn't explain it, he knew the body looked scrawny but what was this feeling as though his muscles were hollow and cannibalising themselves?
Of course his muscles weren't atrophying, if they were the pain would have been unbearable, but there wasn't any pain, it was just that doing anything took too much energy. It was a car trying to run but there was no fuel, it was strange and he couldn't lie, this was the first time he had ever experienced something like this.
"All this gold and the guy could nearly feed himself" Nicholas thought as he got closer to the mirror with great effort
He still couldn't get used to the face, it was strange but it was a face he would need to get used to. No matter how he had come here or what the purpose of the person who sent him here was, it was very clear that he didn't really have that much of a choice in leaving or staying.
"«Ваше Императорское Величество, камердинеры прибыли" a voice called out from beyond the door
"Russian?" Nicholas asked himself
He had never actually learnt the language despite his many attempts at it. All because he had never visited the country again after he left it when he was six years old. However, he could still recognize the language anywhere even if he could barely understand it.
"You may come in" he replied not knowing what to say but for some reason, clear russian escaped his lips
With his command the door was opened as a bunch of men and women, all dressed in what any modern person would consider fancy clothing. They were dressed in European clothing and looked like what he would imagine a noble would look like. They turned on the lights and came to stand in a line
"Wait did they call me his majesty?" Nicholas thought as he watched them enter the room and gave a deep bow
Immediately he began adjusting his posture to seem more regal, however for someone whose definition of majesty was refined by the military, this just meant standing as at ease. It was what he had done many times to the privates under him.
"You may rise" He said as calmly as he could
"Health onto his imperial majesty" they replied before continuing on with their duties
Half of them made their way across the absurdly large room into what seemed to be a bathroom while the others began making the bed and another set prepared his clothes. If he once questioned the title but now it would seem that he truly was the ruler of some russian speaking nation.
Thinking about it now, there was practically no other nation where Russian was the national language of the state apart from Russia itself. Yes, there were many nations that spoke Russian but it wasn't the language of power hence this meant that he was now ruler of Russia.
Nicholas simply stood observing the valets and maids as they moved across the room like clockwork to get their duties done. However his mind raced as he thought about what he knew about Russia… it was next to nothing.
He knew about the soviet union but that was as inconsequential to his life as knowledge of a plane was to a fish. He was a soldier, his dealings were with the modern state known as the Russian Federation. Never in his life had he thought that Russia once had some sort of Imperial past.
"The bath is ready, your majesty" a voice called out and turning to its direction, he could see one of the valets with their head almost touching the ground as he bowed
"I see, thank you and you all may leave" Nicholas replied
"A message from her imperial majesty, the Empress" the man said again
Looking at him a bit more properly, he was dressed in a fancier uniform compared to the rest and had been coordinating them rather than helping .
"Yes?" Nicholas replied, doing his best to stay calm
"She hopes that your majesty is doing fine but wishes that you return to the Alexander Palace today as you have remained here for the past two days" the man said with his head bowed slightly
"I see, I will do my best to return tonight" Nicholas replied after some thinking
"As you wish your Majesty" the man said before clapping a bit as the entire group left the room
As soon as the door was closed, Nicholas nearly collapsed. He was truly the monarch to Russia, it wasn't enough that he had to somehow impersonate the person he had taken over, it turns out he had a wife and from the sound of the message, it would seem they spent time together a lot.